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A History of the Best Gucci Handbags
In 1897, a man named Guccio Gucci left his native Florence for London, where he worked at the tony Savoy Hotel as a bellhop. Handling the luggage of the ritzy clientele there gave him the education he needed to return to Italy and produce his very own line of travel-centric leather goods. The year was 1921 when Guccio finally opened the doors to his boutique on Florence’s Via della Vigna Nuova, selling imported suitcases in addition to goods handcrafted by local artisans. It didn’t take long for customers to latch onto Guccio’s wares, and soon after that, Gucci became an outright sensation.
The Best Gucci Handbags to Shop Now
A trade embargo placed on Italy during Mussolini’s rule meant that materials—leather in particular—were scarce. So, Guccio and his sons Aldo, Vasco, and Rodolfo (all now part of the family business) had to get creative, making wicker, raffia, and wood Gucci signatures in addition to cuoio grasso, an incredibly smooth veal calf leather. (Nearby, the Florentine Salvatore Ferragamo was also making do with what was available with his cork-heel creations.) At around the same time, Gucci also developed a woven hemp textile with a diamond pattern, a precursor to the current double-G monogram.
Around 1947, Gucci made fashion history with its bamboo-handled bag, a structured little purse adorned with a bamboo handle bent by the heat of a flame. By 1953, Ingrid Bergman was carrying a variation in the film Viaggio in Italia, setting off Hollywood’s love affair with Gucci. Reported visitors to Gucci’s Florence shop included then–Princess Elizabeth (before her ascent to the British throne), Eleanor Roosevelt, and Elizabeth Taylor. A stint as an actor meant that Rodolfo would also bring in his own picture-making friends like Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, and Sophia Loren.
By the 1950s, when la dolce vita was in full swing in Rome, and Manhattan was a playground for monied movers and shakers, Gucci was outfitting and accessorizing it all. Over the next two decades, Gucci opened up shops just about everywhere worth being seen. One day, at the Milan outpost, Grace Kelly walked in and got a silk scarf decorated with a feminine floral pattern (dubbed the Flora, which remains a house code to this day); on another, Jackie Kennedy Onassis
picked out a hobo bag. The latter was recently reissued by Alessandro Michele, as were the bamboo-handled Diana bag and the Gucci Attache bag. Michele was also responsible for the Dionysus and the Marmont—two bags that have maintained their It bag status years after their debuts.
Sabato De Sarno, who succeeded Michele as creative director, introduced the GG Milano bag during his tenure—a design that quickly garnered attention for its sleek silhouette and versatile appeal. As of March 2025, Demna Gvasalia has taken the helm as Gucci’s creative director, with his inaugural collection anticipated to debut in September 2025. Fashion enthusiasts eagerly await to see how Demna will infuse his distinctive aesthetic into Gucci’s storied legacy.
Like the enduring allure of the woman it’s named after, The Jackie is a bag that will never go out of style. In 1961, Gucci introduced a hobo-style bag that caught the eye of Jackie Kennedy, whose husband so famously loved Gucci’s loafer moccasins. It’s said that upon seeing a paparazzi image of Jackie Kennedy with the bag (then called the Fifties Constance), the Gucci family swiftly christened it The Jackie. The classic hobo-shape saw many iterations under Tom Ford and Frida Giannini, but its latest incarnation comes by way of Michele, who in 2021 gave us a spin on The Jackie with a bit more structure, an adjustable strap, and a piston closure.
First introduced as part of Sabato De Sarno’s fall 2024 Ancora collection, the Softbit Maxi Shoulder Bag reimagines Gucci’s iconic Horsebit hardware at an exaggerated scale. Crafted from grainy leather with a satisfyingly soft structure, it features a gleaming half Horsebit, a hidden magnetic closure, and a detachable interior pouch. Both sculptural and casual, the Softbit marks a new, modern chapter in Gucci’s accessories archive.
Unveiled for fall 2024, Gucci’s GG Emblem Collection offers a fresh, refined take on the house’s iconic monogram. Designed under Sabato De Sarno’s direction, the line stretches beyond just totes to include crossbodies, small shoulder bags, and minimalist satchels—all rendered in a crisp beige-and-ebony GG canvas trimmed with soft leather. Every silhouette shares a certain understated rigor: clean lines, quiet logos, a shift away from past maximalism. Actress Daisy Edgar-Jones has been seen carrying a GG Emblem tote in London, underscoring the collection’s wear-everywhere versatility. Whether worn slouched over the shoulder or carried neatly in hand, the GG Emblem line distills Gucci’s heritage into its most streamlined form yet.
Part of the Ancora debut, the Gucci B Bag draws directly from archival saddle bags of the 1950s and 1970s. Its curved, oversized silhouette feels at once familiar and sharply contemporary, emphasized by brushed suede finishes and subtle double-G embossing. Jessica Chastain was photographed carrying the style during Milan Fashion Week, wearing hers with a sharp black blazer and wide-leg trousers—showcasing the B Bag’s easy elegance. Structured yet fluid, the design bridges Gucci’s equestrian past with its streamlined present.
Part of the Cruise 2025 collection, Gucci’s Woven Tote captures a breezy, warm-weather spirit. Crafted from a natural and brown raffia-effect fabric woven with an allover GG monogram, it’s lightweight yet structured, ideal for days that stretch from the city to the coast. With its generous proportions and artisanal texture, it feels tailor-made for beach clubs, resort getaways, and sun-soaked afternoons. Proof that even Gucci’s most casual designs are still unmistakably polished.
Gucci’s GG Raffia Bucket Bag, launched for spring-summer 2024, feels like a postcard from the Mediterranean. The bag’s natural raffia body is intricately woven with Gucci’s signature interlocking G motif, finished with smooth saddle leather trim and a cinching drawstring closure. Lightweight yet substantial, it’s tailor-made for summer in the city, weekends at the coast, and everything in between. Though it’s a newer addition, its timeless, sun-drenched aesthetic suggests future cult status alongside other house icons.
The Milano was one of Sabato De Sarno’s first big handbag hits at Gucci—and it still feels like a star. Debuted on the Fall/Winter 2024 runway in Milan, the top-handle style comes in three playful finishes: glossy leather for the minimalists, a bold embossed monogram for the maximalists, and a sporty striped version for everyone in between. The magic is in the details: a puffed, pillowy texture and a detachable chain strap for hands-free ease. De Sarno may have since passed the torch, but the Milano lives on as a standout of his short but stylish Gucci reign. as a crossbody.
What has a hook-style closure (à la the Jackie) but the angles of the Diana? Meet The Tote bag, which was first introduced in Gucci’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection. Its a seriously-chic bag that’s meant to be taken seriously—she gives the airs of a C-suite executive. You won’t find a logo on this style, just a natural leather grain in solid hues. Coming in small, medium, and an oblong-shape, The Tote bag works as hard as you do with a removable shoulder strap for added functionality.
The Ophidia
If you love the unmissable GG print or the green and red web print, those signature motifs are celebrated throughout The Ophidia collection. The best part about this line is its continued growth year after year since it was introduced during the Cruise 2018 season under Alessandro Michele’s leadership. Find the hallmark touches on boxy totes, mini shoulder bags, and so much more.
In addition to lots of L.O.V.E, Gucci’s Love Parade runway show was filled with accessory goodies. There’s the aforementioned Attache bag but also the Blondie—an understated leather flap bag with a removable strap (there’s a glinty gold chain, a strip web trim, or a strapless option). There’s little embellishment or bedazzlement save for an eye-catching Gucci logo that dates back to a logo filed in a patent by Gucci in 1971—the interlocking G-motif featured a pair of the letters with one inverted and flipped on its head. The Blondie represented yet another cleverly modern homage payment by Gucci’s then-creative director Alessandro Michele to the historic house. The bag is proof that Blondies do indeed have more fun.
As the legend goes, glinty horsebit hardware entered Gucci’s fashionable oeuvre in 1953. It was Aldo Gucci—recognizing that shoppers liked a side of history with their handbags—who perpetuated the myth that the Gucci family had once been saddle-makers to nobility. Aldo leaned into the equine concept, and under his direction, top-stitching reminiscent of that on saddles adorned handbags; and green and red stripes seen on girth straps became a signature Gucci element, as did the Gucci horsebit. Aldo even went so far as to replace the bellhop—a nod to Guccio’s early job—in the Gucci crest with a knight in armor. Since the horsebit appeared on a handbag in 1955, that elegant hardware has become as recognizable as Chanel’s double Cs. Tom Ford, Alessandra Facchinetti, and Frida Giannini all incorporated the horsebit into their designs, and current Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele has given us the latest iteration. Presented at the house’s cruise 2020 collection, the reprised Gucci Horsebit 1955 bag comes in various shapes (tote, satchel, shoulder bag), all unified by the instantly identifiable double-D rings. After all, there’s no need for a Gucci logo when its signature hardware is present.
In the late 1990s, one often saw Princess Diana headed to-and-fro with a bamboo-handled Gucci bag. Hers was in putty-colored suede, and even when it accessorized her biker shorts and sweatshirts on trips to the gym, she made it look divine. As mentioned above, bamboo-handled bags have been a part of the Gucci repertoire since the very beginning, and the style has never really left the house. On Thursday, July 1, 2021—what would have been Princess Diana’s 60th birthday—Michele gave us The Diana Bag, a bamboo-handled tote much like the version worn by the Princess. On this bag, we get a logo of double Gs facing the same direction (Michele’s remix of the Gucci monogram is one of many celebrated interventions he’s made at the house). Because it wouldn’t be Michele’s without a madcap flourish, he added a neon-colored elastic strap. The latter is a playful, removable touch that references the elastic bands Gucci uses to help its bamboo keep its shape.
The Marmont is less a single bag than a family of bags with Michele as the patriarch. Not long into his tenure as Gucci’s creative director, Michele gave us the Marmont bags with a chain, crossbody strap as the signature style. They debuted on the 2016 fall runways, capturing everything Michele intended to bottle up and sell in bag form: The untethered bohemian spirit of the ’70s and the hush-hush glamour of the Château Marmont. On the bag, Michele introduced his flipped Gucci logo, festooning a semi-puffed, chevron-style quilted pattern of leather and velvets in gemstone hues. The Marmont collection also includes totes, backpacks, and bucket bags, and sometimes the hardware is studded with pearls. No matter which you choose, you can’t go wrong.
Bamboo and Gucci are as interconnected as the interlocking double Gs in the maison’s monogram. Back in the late 1940s, in the aftermath of World War II, Italy experienced a shortage of leather and thus restrictions on how much could be used in the creation of handbags. And because necessity is the mother of invention, Guccio Gucci ingeniously thought to use a curved bamboo handle (applying heat to the raw material to create a curved U-shape) in a patented technology that has stood the test of time. Throughout Gucci’s history, creative directors from Tom Ford to Frida Giannini to Alessandro Michele have all utilized bamboo in the design of ready-to-wear and leather goods. The current iteration of the iconic bag, now dubbed the Gucci Bamboo 1947, has changed little since its inception. Wonderfully logo-free, polished but not prissy, the bag comes in medium, small, and mini sizes in a variety of polished leather, canvas monogram, and exotic skins.